Sunday, November 20, 2011

I spent Friday wandering around Baltimore and taking pictures (to use as reference for compositions and details), getting off the light rail at the harbor and weaving my way back to campus. I'm going to use trash, pamphlets, etc from off the street in my collage stickers. I'm attaching some of the pictures I took, as well as two sketchbook pages showing my thought process for the pieces so far.

Friday, November 18, 2011

I arrived there at around 12 pm with just a small sketchbook. I had only been sketching for about four or five minutes when a woman approached me. Soon I was fully engaged in a conversation with three people from extremely different walks of life. Philip, Alisha, and Hykeem. When I first met Alisha she showed me a sketch she was doing from a perfume add in a magazine. She told me she was homeless and that she had only been there for three days. She said OB offered her protection all night when she was rejected from Code Blue [a local Homeless Shelter]. I asked her all sorts of questions about Occupy Baltimore and her life, and she told me about the movement from her perspective.

Philip came over to sit and talk, and told us about his participation with The Black Panther Party. He came to the movement this afternoon to help the homeless population that congregates at OB. He thinks that the OB movement is a waste of time and lacks any organization. He also said that being arrested would do nothing to help our country. He fought with Alisha on so many issues and it was really weird to be in between that. But he eventually offered her a place to stay that night and food and so they left.

Hykeem was one of the first members of OB. He joined OB October 5th when the movement began. He spoke of the lack of leadership and of the idea that he deserved to be the unofficial leader. He told me of how he takes care of the OB as a community, and how he loves everyone in the movement.

These interactions were what I wanted from today, and although I took so many notes afterwards, during our conversations I didn't want to hide away in my note-taking. I will bring my sketchbook to class, by then it'll probably be full.

I took about 15 pages of notes. and I intend to make a small illustration each day based on the ideas in the conversations I heard today. They will also be based on my research since the beginning of the Occupy Movement.

Heads up! There is a protest happening tomorrow about Homelessness in Baltimore. It will be In front of the City Hall, and it begins at 6pm. You can meet people from the Occupy The Highway movement that are walking all the way from Occupy Wall Street to The White House.

Hello! For my project I decided to create a series of posters for the Maryland Zoo. I am focusing on their two ravens, Rise and Conquer. These also happen to be the live mascots for the Baltimore Ravens. I didn't know these two ravens were at the zoo, so I thought I'd try to bring some attention to them. I WAS going to go to the zoo today, but there were some complications with transportation and timing. I checked out the Maryland Zoo site and found the page about the two birds. There are some videos on youtube that I checked out as well. I did some sketches, but haven't come up with anything final just yet. So far I've tried to combine football images with the birds because I feel like that kind of a big thing here. I've got a raven in a ravens helmet and another image with both of the birds flying over the stadium. I also thought to have a portrait of the two, but seems a little boring. I'm still trying to come up with some non-football related images.

Hey everyone! I'm doing posters for the annual Baltimore celebration/festival of Edgar Allen Poe's birthday. This morning I visited the Poe House (they host the event). I couldn't take pictures, but I did sketch a bit and take some notes. Even though the museum was tiny it was really cool. I don't think I'm going to use anything I saw in the Poe House in my final pieces (they're illustrations of his short stories/poems), but it was a really nice experience and definitely got me in the Poe Zone. I spent the rest of the day sketching and starting 2 of the final pieces.

Most of my project so far has consisted of research, researching things I never even considered.

What sparked the idea for the project is my love of ice hockey. The Washington Capitals played the Nashville Predators on Tuesday September 20th 2011 at the First Mariner Arena formally known as the Civic Center. Apparently Baltimore used to have minor league hockey teams and teams a part of the American

Hockey League. My idea for the project is to Bring Hockey Back 2 Bmore. There were three teams over the years the Clippers 1962-1977, Skipjacks 1981-1993 and one of the players Bruce Boudreau whom I met a few years ago, is the current head coach of the Capitals, and finally the Baltimore Bandits 1995-1997. This game was pretty big The Baltimore Classic brought the first hockey game back in 14 years! The 1st Mariner was over a bit over heated for the game and the rink was kinda small and oh yeah we lost. Whomp whomp. I still had fun! The seats I sat in were at the top BUT cannot complain 1. I didn't pay for the tickets 2. I could see everything. Back in the mid 1960s my seat would

have cost $1.50 and the front row seats only $4.00!!

I learned from going there that the history of ice hockey in Baltimore stretches all the way back to 1896 when Yale University played the Blue Jays of John Hopkins University inside a new arena on North Avenue! Possibly the first ever collegiate hockey game EVER played in the United States!

There aren't as many

rinks near by as I am used to growing up in Montgomery County. One must also consider the costs of playing and financing an interest in hockey it is really exp

ensive. Anyway, I also did research and found that Baltimore and a lot of organizations want to build a New First Mariner or something. I am totally on board with it. It will create more jobs, help revitalize the area, and there will be bigger shows. As for professional Sports Teams:

Well we cannot exactly compete with the fan base and popularity of the Washington Capitals, one of the best hockey teams in the NHL hands down. S

o an NBA team might be in the works and most people are/will be satisfied with bringing back an AHL Hockey team. Baltimorians want their ice hockey back!

Alright here are the old Logos for the teams

I had trouble posting those in order actually adding them to my text at all. Anyway, I had to research what exactly a "Clipper" or "Skipjack" was, um what other animals started with the letter "B", other animals considered

to be "Bandits". "Clippers" are ships that are narrow have great speed (I could go on) Skipjacks are a ty

pe of tuna and a type of boat. The latter being used in Maryland fisheries for oysters. I was thinking about redesigning all the logos for t shirts or posters. Not sure how I can redesign some of them umm like the boat related ones. I did sketches and I thought why not connect all 3 some how. An animals plus water related and alliteration! yay fun my favorite design so far is the Baltimore Blue Crabs. I don't know why I didn't think of it before BUT the jerseys I looked them up and they are hideous so I think I will redesign or design a jersey and hopefully have one made or find a blank hockey jersey and paint it myself!

I hope that Baltimore would actually use my design. Um I didn't get as far as I had hoped I plan on posting clearing designs for the Logos asap and would really appreciate if you guys stay tuned and gave me your opinion on them. Should I just try to manipulate the old logos? I don't know maybe too easy or too hard actually?

I spent the day working on finalizing the layout/composition of my postcards, particularly the card I am creating for Sound Garden. I will also be making cards for Fell's Point, the Inner Harbor, Red Emma's Coffeehouse, Bohemian Coffeehouse, MICA, and the Sheffield Institute for the Recording Arts. The biggest issue/question I've run into so far is whether or not I want to include hand-lettering for the front/back of the postcards-- for example, should I just insert Sound Garden's logo into the bottom of the top image below or refine my rendering of it?

I was also playing with the idea of illustrating Robert's name differently for every postcard; for this I'd draw a larger version of his name, scan it, and then place it on the card. Once again, I'm running into the question of whether or not it would be better to just type his name/address out on the computer. The left side of the postcard below is where Garrett (Robert's best friend who is also living in the Baltimore area) and I would write our description/stories of the location. I want to keep that part in handwriting because it seems more sincere/personal, whereas typing it out would seem way too formal for the relationship we have with Robert.

Other than that, I plan on rendering my drawings with watercolor and ink, as is my repertoire, and I'll be doing so with the help of images I took last Friday and days previous. On a different note, would it be ok to have the orientation of my postcards vary? I feel like some of the locations would be better suited to have a vertical composition, but I don't want those postcards to seem out of synch with the others.

I'm doing poster designs for a few Baltimore bands (Beach House, Future Islands, and Wye Oak), so I'm starting with Beach House. The top image is the preliminary sketch and my intended color scheme. I've decided to paint these, so the bottom image is the sketch on canvas - still having some layout issues with it, but I'll continue to work on it (and sorry it's so hard to see, I sketched it pretty lightly).

For my project I am planning on making an illustrated children's book based on an essay that my little brother Joseph wrote for his english class. The essay is about a trip that my family and I took to Korea last summer and his experiences visiting our home country for the first time. Below I've included a few sketches and notes based on this project. I have also included my edited version of his essay as well as side notes on how I am planning on doing the drawings. I've also researched a number of self publishing websites as well as photo album sites that came useful to me in calculating time and pricing. It's a lot but I am confident I will finish on time.Enjoy!

Hi, my name is Joseph and I am 11 years old! I live with my parents and my two
sisters, Jane and Lisa. We have lived here before I was even born and now we
are moving back to our home country, Korea.

Now my new home is Seoul, the capital of South Korea. When
we arrived, the city was filled with bright lights and colors! Every building
and every house was so close together; it was like a big town squished together
so there were no gaps in between!

Whole family in the
car driving past a bustling city at night. Flashing signs, lights, and traffic.

At our new house, everything looked so bright and clean. It
was the most luxurious house I have ever seen! There were huge windows, shiny
floors, and we even had two refrigerators!

But as much as I wanted to explore more of our new home, my
eyes started to get tiring. Soon I couldn’t stop yawning, so my mom put me in
bed. I couldn’t wait to wake up the next morning.

One page, Joe sleeping
on Korean bed sheets on wooden floor as mom closes the door.

Dark with light source
coming from open door.

The next day my mom and I decided to see the rest of the
neighborhood, and let me say this, Korea has so much food! Our small little
neighborhood had all the tastes of the world!

Wide view of all sorts
of bakeries, eateries, street food, and other stores. Featuring many people
eating, talking, walking. Mom at a stand paying for take-out lunch while Joe
looks at the setting.

After that we went to visit my dad’s new office. The room
was small but somehow my dad fit his meeting table, his desk, a chair, and a
mini fridge! It may look big but it really wasn’t.

Mom holding lunch
standing in front of the entryway with Joe. Joe with asurprised expression looks on as
workers try to fit everything in the small room. Dad helping one of the workers
waves at them.

On our walk back home we saw a huge park for bikes and for
jogging! Ever since we found that park my mom and dad thought that we should
buy two bikes!

View of a wide
landscape with view of a river, dad baying for bikes at a bike stand in the
corner.

Everyday was a busy day for me. My parents thought that I
should get private lessons. The classes that I took were Korean, guitar,
ping-pong, piano, and a traditional sport called tae-kwon do. The classes were
fun but I was so busy! It was like school but worse! I had to go to lessons
every ten minutes! Now I know why people say time flies.

Joe centered in the
middle running with all the lessons surrounding him. OR Joe trying to handle
every activity all at once.

As quickly as my summer was passing by, my family and I all
managed to find time to visit my grandma’s.I didn’t know we had so much family here in Korea! So many
aunts, uncles, and cousins! It really was endless!

A small thumbnail of
our family in front of grandma’s door with her greeting us.

A bigger picture of
our family (maybe take reference to a master’s painting for composition?;
Pierre’s Luncheon at the Boating Party) Joe in the side playing video games
with Chan and Che-yee, others helping out with food, setting table, talking,
laughing.

On the last day we all decided to go back to the park, and
luckily we were in time to see the fireworks show. As we all snuggled up in our
blankets looking at the show in the sky I felt sad as to how the summer was already
over. It felt just like yesterday how we came to Korea and now we had to go.

Overall view of the
night sky with a show of fireworks with the family settled in the bottom of the
page under a huge blanket.

This summer was like fireworks. There was so much excitement
and happiness that had to fade away so quickly, leaving only a trail of smoke
as a way to remember those bright colors once again.

I spent the open studio time working on composition and color. I was experimenting with different objects that i could move around to create an even better composition.

I wanted to also experiment with color to ensure that I won't have problems deciding on colors when doing the final illustrations. Although my idea hasn't been completely changed I have added a few tweaks. I decided that my project will be a little book of postcards from a created character. The character is a creature who is a tourist at Baltimore and is sharing his experiences at each location. The book is his documentation of his travels to Baltimore. So I'm planning on doing water color and pen drawings for each postcard and each card will include the name of the place and also a little story next to it.